The Securities and Exchange Commission announced an award of more than a million dollars to a compliance professional who provided information that assisted the SEC in an enforcement action against the whistleblower’s company. By law, the SEC cannot disclose information that might directly or indirectly reveal the identities of whistleblowers so the complete information regarding this action is not available.
Andrew Ceresney, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement stated “This compliance officer reported misconduct after responsible management at the entity became aware of potentially impending harm to investors and failed to take steps to prevent it.”According to the SEC, this is the second award to an internal audit or compliance professional. These verdicts may change how upper management views compliance officers, more as adversaries rather than risk management partners. Compliance officers should consider having an outside and independent firm audit the firm's regulatory compliance to help alleviate this situation.
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